Just Google It: Digital Literacy and the Epistemology of Ignorance

In this seminar, Dr.s Bhatt and MacKenzie will examine digital literacy and how it relates to the philosophical study of ignorance. Ignorance of how digital technologies work (eg. how users’ online activities can be used to the advantage of platform owners without the users’ knowledge, and how browsing can be confined) is still not well understood from the perspective of user practice. Building on work in Literacy Studies - which has often examined ‘knowledge production’ - they will argue that a social practice approach to digital literacy can also help examine how epistemologies of ignorance may be produced, reproduced and sustained. Using data from a study exploring the knowledge producing work of undergraduate students through interviews and recorded observations of assignment writing, Dr.s Bhatt and MacKenzie will also argue that particular digital literacy practices pave the way for the construction of certain forms of ignorance, and that this kind of literacy inquiry is a vital step in better understanding the implications of online practices.

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